Bite the hand that feeds you
by neon rose
Summary: What if the world was a slightly different place when Jinx and Kid Flash met? What happens when it's Kid Flash trying to catch Jinx to impress his boss and not the other way around? KFxJinx
1. Chapter 1

Kid Flash stretched his back out as he closed the door to what would be his new home away from home in Jump City. Robin had asked him to look after the place (the city that was) while he was away fighting the brotherhood of evil, he was a little hurt that this was the first time Robin had invited him here since he'd started the Titans and he was even going to _be_ there, but hey, that was Robin for you. Still, he mused as he walked to the wind and looked out at his new city, it'd be nice to get some time away from his aunt and uncle for a change and get some real freedom.

He spied a note on the kitchen table and strolled over to get it.

"Dear KF," He read aloud,

"We already stocked the fridge up for you, it ought to last you even a day or two- oh very funny Robin. Please look after the city, stop evildoers…. Blah blah blah." Kid Flash read rout rolling his eyes at the letter until a bit at the bottom caught his eye.

"Also, stop reading aloud to yourself; it makes you look like a halfwit. Now go back to the part where you starting saying 'blah blah blah' and actually read it." Kid Flash read out in disbelief.

"Smartass." Kid Flash grumbled crumpling up the note and throwing it over his shoulder.

Suddenly he heard the distant sound of police sirens and grinned.

"Listen Robin, they're playing our song." He chuckled to himself before speeding out of the room.

"Sever hours later Kid Flash found himself grinning like a maniac at a very disgruntled police officer, this guy was the 25th criminal he'd brought in since arriving to the city a few hours ago. He'd brought in every purse snatcher, shop lifter, car jacket, burglar and even one very determined jaywalker, in short, everyone he could find doing anything wrong. He knew how this sort of thing went, people would see him, realise the other Titans weren't there and go haywire, thinking that they could get away with taking the new guy for a ride and generally causing mayhem. Robin didn't like mayhem at all. Kid Flash wasn't going to let it happen on his watch either, the best thing to do was to send a firm, clear message, and that message was that with Kid Flash around you couldn't so much as sneeze without him knowing.

Unfortunately for him this approach has the effect of filling up the local holding cells in the police station pretty fast and running the officers ragged, something which police officers never appreciated. This much alone was plane by the expression of the officer before him.

"Look, kid, you-" the officer sighed.

"Flash." Kid Flash interjected.

"Sorry, Flash, you can't-" The officer tried again.

"No, no, it's Kid Flash, not kid, not Flash, but Kid Flash." Kid Flash explained patiently, it seemed as if the guy was just _slow_ or something. Having said that when you were Kid Flash _everyone_ seemed slow.

"Kid Flash. You can't keep doing this." The officer said through gritted teeth.

"Sure I can. Listen, you've gotta send a message to these people or you'll have anarchy." Kid Flash said soothingly.

"What do you mean 'these people'?!" The black guy Kid Flash had just arrested exclaimed indignantly.

"Don't you even think of trying to pull that one on me!" Kid Flash shot back waving a finger at him warningly.

"Anyway, you really can't keep doing this, we've only got an absolute maximum of five possible places left, we're full to bursting down at the cells!" The officer exclaimed as the black detainee was led off amidst shouts about police brutality and racists in spandex. At that moment the police radio crackled into life:

"Control, we have a sighting of the criminal HIVE five gang entering the museum in possibly suspicious circumstances. Over." The radio announced.

"Define 'possibly suspicious' officer." The annoyed police officer in front of Kid Flash ordered the officer on the other end.

"Well… the doors are about twenty feet away from where they were in the doorframe a moment ago." The officer mumbled embarrassed as he realised that such an incident probably counted as more than just possibly suspicious.

"See? Five guys, five places, then I'll call it a day okay?" Kid Flash said already backing out of the station with a grin on his face.

"Kid Flash! Wait!" The officer called, but it was too late, the teenager was already long gone.

"Tell me he's not just gone to do what I think he's gone to do." The other officer said having just returned to the room.

"Unfortunately he has." The first officer groaned unhappily.

Jinx watched nervously as the hex that had flown from her fingers did its work on the doors as they rather noisily exploded outwards.

"Come on, in!" Jinx ordered as they all sprinted for the inside of the museum. Mammoth grabbed the doors and hastily repositioned them back in the frame not seeing the undercover police car parked opposite the museum and the officer inside already on the radio.

"Let's go, let's GO people! We're on our third strike and you all know what that means!" Jinx said hurriedly as they ran to the key exhibition room.

"We shouldn't even be _doing_ this Jinx! You know what they'll do if they catch us this time!" See-More hissed nervously.

"Look, I told you, the Titans are off fighting the brotherhood of evil. One last score and we'll be fine, then we can run for the border and be free forever!" Jinx reassured him as she walked towards the podium at the head of the room.

"But-" See-More protested.

"Just get it done and get it done fast!" Jinx snapped, her eyes glowing dangerously.

"Fast? That's my middle name." Kid Flash smiled cockily from the door.

"He's not a cop! He looks like a Titan!" Gizmo yelped terrified.

"MY my, you don't miss a trick do you?" Kid Flash said teasingly.

"You know the plan boys." Jinx said planting her foot on the ground firmly. Kid Flash tensed clearly expecting an attack but none came. Jinx was no amateur; she wasn't going to go in all guns blazing against some super without working out his power first.

"That's it? A lot of glaring and an aggressive posture? You're not going to attack me?" Kid Flash asked surprised.

"We're not scuzz-munching idiots like you clearly are." Gizmo snorted at him.

"Ah yes, I forgot, only idiots fight in fights. You've now moved onto the little known martial art of passive aggression." Kid Flash said mockingly. Jinx frowned at the red head, what was he doing? Was he just playing dumb or had he really not figured out their tactic yet? Robin would have recognised this in a heartbeat.

"You're pretty slow for a Titan you know." Jinx said incredulously, who knows, maybe she had gotten lucky and this guy wasn't a Titan but just some newbie in a suit playing hero.

"Actually," Kid Flash said zipping across the room to stand next to her, "I think you'll find I'm pretty quick."

"Super speed huh?" Jinx grinned in a catlike way, it his powers were just super speed this was practically hero-fighting 101.

"Yup, I find it comes in hands." He smiled almost charmingly at her. Jinx seemed to consider this before sending out a lighting fast jab towards the boy's middle which would have struck even the nimble Robin at that range, if he'd been dumb enough to get that close, which of course he wasn't. God this guy was a moron. Jinx didn't even see the movement, the redhead just disappeared.

"Moments like that for example." He said casually leaning on an exhibit case near Gizmo across the other side of the room. Jinx did some quick mental arithmetic, the length of the room, the speed she knew she could punch and the fact that she'd not even seen him _move_. The boy was FAST, probably one of the fastest. She knew all she needed to.

"Get him!" Jinx roared as they all simultaneously leapt into action, they all knew what they had to do to beat a speedster. Billy's clones jumped him, or at least where he'd been a mere nanosecond before. To his credit See-More was already tracking the speedster's heat train just as Jinx thought to order him to do so. Gizmo fired a series of explosives at him which he dodged effortlessly. Kid Flash watched almost bored as the others attacked him but didn't even come close to touching him.

"Tell you what." Kid Flash proposed ducking a swipe of Jinx's that should have connected with his head without even batting an eyelid.

"I'm gonna go get a coffee, from Brazil, and I'll give you guys until then to consider a peaceful surrender." He said promptly disappearing. His pearly white grin burned into Jinx's mind like a flare and she could almost swear it was still hanging in the air after him like a Cheshire cat.

"Let's get the hell out of here." Jinx breathed scared.

The Hive five hadn't even all turned towards the door before they heard a sharp hiss of breath being drawn in behind them.

"Ouch, I spilled some." He hissed sucking his scorched thumb. Jinx turned to see him holding a steaming mug of hot coffee in his hand.

"Bullshit, no way you got that from Brazil. You just zipped off to some coffee place downtown." Jinx said folding her arms over her chest and scowling at him. Wordlessly he turned the mug around to reveal words written in… in… in whatever the hell it was they spoke in Brazil. Jinx's eyes widened and she quickly recalculated the math. No one was that fast, not even Superman, the Flash himself might be that fast but no one had ever had the reaction time to clock his top speed and he'd declined to state it to the media. Jinx bit her lip, they were screwed, no wonder their normal tactics weren't working. Kid Flash watched her carefully and sipped at his coffee cup.

"Ah, too hot." His said gingerly placing the cup on top of a glass display case.

"I'll tell you what, you've got until this coffee cools before I haul all of your asses to jail." Kid Flash said folding his arms and regarding the HIVE five quietly.

"You heard him Jinx! Let's get out of here!" Gizmo yelled at Jinx who was staring fixedly at Kid Flash like she expected him to move at any second.

"Don't be stupid. We couldn't get anywhere far enough away from here fast enough for him to loose track of us." Jinx said dismissively without ever taking her eyes off of Kid Flash.

"Smart girl. In fact you seem far too smart to be with these losers." Kid Flash pointed out as he looked disdainfully at the HIVE five, bar Jinx of course.

"I've often thought the same." Jinx replied with a wry smile. Kid Flash tilted his head to the side, this pink haired girl was fascinating.

"So why stay here? Why not switch sides?" He asked gently. Jinx's face suddenly hardened and at this her eyes began to glow dangerously.

"Switch sides? Become one of you? You monsters make me sick!" Jinx snarled spitting on the floor as if the very mention of the side of good tainted her mouth. Kid Flash's eyes widened, that was a surprisingly strong reaction to his suggestion.

"You know for a 'hero' you're not all that bright. You've not worked out what it is that we all have in common that you don't." Jinx said her eyes glowing fiercely.

"And what would that be?" Kid Flash asked.

"Hmm… horrible dress sense maybe?" Kid Flash suggested after a feigned moment of thought.

"Pft. From the boy in spandex." Gizmo snorted pulling his goggles over his eyes.

"I'll let you figure it out." Jinx grinned dangerously as the light above her exploded and Kid Flash could hear the distinctive sound of the city's electrical grid grinding to a halt. A bright pink light tattering out from Jinx's hands and glowing from the two bright orbs that were her eyes briefly illuminated the room before quickly fading. This was shortly followed by the sounds of falling masonry and shattering glass. He spun around tensely in the cacophony of noise, he couldn't make out any small sounds like footsteps over all that racket. How was me meant to catch anyone if he couldn't hear them or see past the end of his nose?!

Something hard hit him on the back of his head and he crumpled unconsciously to the floor.

"Kid? Kid, wake up." A police officer said gruffly shaking him awake.

"My head." Kid Flash moaned opening his eyes. They widened as he saw the state of the museum, the whole place was destroyed. It looked like a bomb had gone off in the place, everything was in pieces. He looked down, the only untouched thing in the whole place was his Brazilian coffee mug. He touched the side of it, it was stone cold.

"What happened here?" The police officer sighed looking at the devastation.

"I was caught by surprise. And I learned something." Kid Flash said standing up.

"How to get your ass kicked?" The officer suggested.

"No. I learnt that there's one very important difference between them and me." Kid Flash said thoughtfully.

"They're all evil?" The officer sighed.

"No. They can all see in the dark." Kid Flash said walking towards the museum entrance.

"But, yeah, that too." He added before dashing off.


	2. Chapter 2

The HIVE five were several miles away before they even dared to stop running.

"You think we lost him?" Gizmo asked looking over his shoulder in the dark warily, he'd never been more grateful for the fact that his goggles had a night vision mode.

"I think so, the lights are all still out and I hit him pretty hard, we just need to find somewhere to hide." Jinx panted doubled over and nursing a stitch in her side.

"We need to find somewhere private that he can't get into without breaking and entering." See-More agreed breathily.

"Well that rules the base out. It'd be too easy for him to trace us there, then that'd be justifiable cause." Jinx sighed remembering her criminal law classes at the HIVE academy, or to give it its full name: Criminal Law and How to Exploit It.

"How about there? They can't get in there, there's a fence and everything." Mammoth rumbled pointing to a warehouse.

"Your lack of understanding of the concept of what would keep a titan away nonetheless has not prevented you from finding a good place. Let's go!" Jinx said motioning towards the warehouse. The HIVE five nodded and ran towards the warehouse and with practice ease jumped the fence, Jinx carefully hexed the lock off of the door and pulled it open, she held it open as the others ran inside and after taking the time to look around and make sure a certain Titan wasn't looking went inside and closed the door herself.

Kid Flash looked sullenly at the computer as he clicked through the HIVE five's profiles. Clothing, super strength, dark magic, advanced technology, child genius and inventor. He'd been dumb to try and fight them without researching them. He rubbed his forehead and lifted his soda to his mouth as he looked onto the next profile.

Jinx. Runaway, graduated with honours from the HIVE academy, exceptional acrobatic skills, hex powers, she was smart too. Robin had listed her highly in both pre-planned attack patterns and the ability to spontaneously deviate from planning in the face of changes and new challenges.

He cringed, she'd held back and watched him to find out how to beat him, that swipe she'd taken at him was to see just how fast he was. And of course he'd not kept anything hidden, he'd been cocky and told her everything she had needed to know. Robin would never let him live this down if he didn't go and re-catch her, and he had to do it before Robin found out that anything had gone wrong.

Jinx's powers were perplexing him though, bad luck seemed like such an odd thing to control. There had to be some way to lure her back out to wherever it was that she was hiding so he could catch her. Clearly the way to approach this was to get the trickier people out of the way before they had time to react and really become a problem. Although he'd sorely like to leave Jinx until last, she could beat him thoroughly if he made the tiniest mistake and he had no doubt that she'd be studying him now as he was her. Her reaction to him being a Titan intrigued him though and he wanted to find out why, he wanted to get a chance to talk to her without her team around. Which would mean that he'd have to take the dangerous route and get rid of everyone else before her regardless of the tactics.

But how could he lure her out?

He sighed and closed down the Titan's criminal network and glanced at the museum website.

"Why were you even there?" He murmured to himself as he looked over the list of the museum exhibits. It hadn't really seemed like she was going for anything in particular other than the expensive stuff held in the main area. Nothing really jumped out at him from the exhibit list, there were a few Egyptian exhibits but nothing seemed like it would be special to her. Maybe she just needed the cash, but there were easier places to hit for cash than the museum, there must have been something drawing her there.

Suddenly he felt a stab of guilt, he was supposed to take his aunt to the museum in Star City before he went off to Jump City but he'd completely forgotten! He quickly opened up the Star City's museum website. A big image with a pink gemstone set in a silver metal popped up in the middle of the screen, he glanced down at the exhibit dates and groaned.

"The Luck amulet exhibit, the damn thing finished yesterday." He groaned feeling awful.

Kid Flash's eyes clicked open. Luck. That was Jinx's power wasn't it? Maybe that would be the type of thing she'd be drawn to steal. He restarted the Titan's database and pulled up the list of things that she had been either confirmed in stealing or made an attempt at. His eyes widened, that was a _very_ long list. He knew Robin was obsessed with keeping records but this was a bit much. Grateful for the search feature that had been installed in the database he selected Jinx's list and after a moment's thought put in the words 'luck' 'charm' and 'fortune' into the search bar.

Kid Flash let out a low whistle, he'd guessed right about Jinx, there were hundreds of thefts and attempts on luck oriented items, it seemed like she'd try to steal anything with supposed good luck powers. He frowned, why would Jinx want good luck charm when she controlled bad luck? Surely if any of that stuff worked it'd be like kryptonite to her. Unless of course she wanted to change her powers, to change her luck, maybe it was even a subconscious way of trying to be good herself. He leaned back in his chair, that settled it then, he _had_ to see her and find out more about her.

He leant over and picked up the phone and dialled the museum in Star city. Hopefully he could ask for a favour, he knew his name had a little more currency in his home city than it did here. Then all he'd need to do would be to get the Jump City museum to agree to it and then he could just sit back and wait for Jinx to take the bait.

Jinx paced back and forth across the room like a caged animal whilst the boys watched a TV they'd stolen.

"We're wasting time, soon the real titans will be back and we'll have missed our opportunity." Jinx said stomping her feet.

"But what about that super speed kid? Now that he knows about us he'll be waiting." Gizmo pointed out reasonably.

"Yeah and we've probably made him mad, like third strike mad. We're safer in here." See-More agreed.

"Agh! Do you guys ever see past your own noses? Sure at this particular moment in time it may be safer indoors laying low, but next week or the week after when the Titans get back it won't be!" Jinx fumed.

"Hey! There's our handiwork!" Gizmo shouted pointing at the TV. The TV panned across the trashed museum.

"Thieves may have left their mark on the museum but we can show them that they've not stolen her soul. Come see the new museum exhibit, all proceeds go to restoring the priceless architecture of the museum." The announcer said in the soothing voice of TV advertisers everywhere.

"Gawd, hand me a bucket Billy, I think I'm gonna puke." Billy said to one of his clones across the room.

"Shut up." Jinx said smacking Billy across the back of the head and bent down to watch the TV more intently.

"-exhibit will include the Egyptian luck amulet and many other ancient treasures." The announcer said tantalisingly.

Gizmo turned off the TV and the HIVE five boys as one turned to look warily at Jinx.

"Jinx…" Gizmo said slowly as he noted that Jinx was already grinning cat like from ear to ear.

"Jinx, don't do this." Gizmo warned, but it was too late. Jinx's eyes were sparkling with the new thrill of the chase, the next big score, and the next luck charm for her to steal

"It's perfect, one big score, there'll be loads of rich folks there to fleece, more than enough for all of us to get away from the Titans and start our new lives. And I get a nice going away present. It hits all the criteria!" Jinx said excitedly.

"I wasn't aware 'really obvious trap' was one of the criteria." Gizmo said with an unhappy glare.

"If you always look at things with that level of suspicion nothing perfect will ever happen to you." Jinx said waving a finger at him.

"Gizmo, I need you to do some research, check that this thing is indeed legit. See-More I need you to scan that building and let me know if you see anything with that big beautiful eye of yours that isn't on the plans and let me know. Billy, I want you to get me as many identical cars as you can, I want at least a hundred escape plans and an Italian job style exit, our boy might be fast but even he can't be in a hundred places at once. Kyd Wykkyd, help make sure all those cars are as identical as possible and check inside the building regularly, any sign of that speedster and the whole thing is off." Jinx ordered bright eyed and hyper, pink hex energy sparked off of her she was on such a high, nothing ever got Jinx more excited than planning a heist.

"What about me?" Mammoth asked standing up.

"Mammoth, you… take a nap, you'll need your strength for pounding things, plus we need someone here at all times to stop that speedster interfering, or something." Jinx said dismissively after a second of thought.

"This is a bad idea." Gizmo said folding his short arms.

"Duly noted, not get to it." Jinx ordered as she walked off to devise battle strategies as she muttered excitedly to herself.

"…take a nap?" Mammoth said feeling insulted.

"At least you get an easy job." Billy grumbled.


	3. Chapter 3

Kid Flash lay down on his bed on his back and kicked his feet in the air. He was bored, really _really_ bored. He'd never liked being cooped up inside, even before he got his powers. He twitched his foot in hyper speed and looked at his clock, the museum's opening night was due to start in half an hour, thirty minutes exactly in fact he noted absently.

He breathed an exasperated sigh and blew his red hair out of his face. He was so bored, well… no, he wasn't bored exactly, he was more nervous than bored. The waiting felt like Christmas morning, it felt like being a kid at four am when your parents have told you that you absolutely cannot get up before six but you're awake all the same and you know that there are presents downstairs just out of reach. And god did he ever want to unwrap the mystery that was Jinx, the waiting just made it even more painful.

He'd get to talk to Jinx and finally figure her out, why did she hate Titans so vehemently? Why was she stealing? What was with the good luck charms? He just _had_ to know. And now he felt that first date kind of nervous. What would he say? What would she say? What if she didn't show up? Now that would feel like first date rejection. He rested his hand on his stomach, he actually had butterflies about this. He looked over at his clock, surely some time had passed by now and he was that much closer to seeing Jinx. He groaned and the grin that had previously adorned his face fell off. It was now twenty-nine minutes until the museum opened.

Jinx too was looking at the time in a concerned manner, despite her confident attitude to the boys Kid Flash was a real problem. They had reported nothing unusual in the building, no tracking devices, no sensors, Gizmo had already disabled the museum's standard silent alarms and installed a signal jammer to stop mobile phones from inside the museum, excluding of course their own communication devices. The speedster hadn't even been seen anywhere in or near the building. Everything seemed to be going to plan perfectly.

Jinx HATED when things seemed to be going to plan, much more so when everything was perfect, it usually meant that something was very much not going to plan and more worryingly, she just didn't know what it was yet. She knew somewhere in her gut that the speedster was going to show up and ruin everything, she just knew it, she pressed her hand to her stomach in the hopes of quieting the niggling feeling of wrongness.

She watched calmly from the café across the street in her dark brown wig, the other boys had their own hiding places but this was hers. She watched as the guests filed into the building one by one and security checked them off against the list. She smiled, when it came to making sure no one who shouldn't be on the list – like say, a certain titan- got in, security was a villainesses best friend.

As the last guest filed in Jinx serenely stood up, walked across the road, quietly hexed the guards who Kyd Wykkyd quickly disappeared to a dumpster down the street, she walked through the impressive doors and locked them behind her, with an unnerving smile on her face and her nerves suppressed she turned to her now captive audience.

"Hands in the air and no one needs to get hurt. Just put all your valuables and wallets into the bags my associates are carrying around and we'll be on our way." Jinx ordered the surprised crowd. Jinx noticed a distinct lack of Billy in the room, he was supposed to be going around with the bags, she looked at Gizmo who shrugged at her. She hoped he hadn't gotten the plan out of order and was already out back loading the artefacts into the cars, she'd told him a hundred times, valuables _then_ museum pieces.

She looked around the room a little harder, still no Billy, one of the others would have surely corrected him upon seeing him by now surely? This wasn't good, now she looked incompetent in front of her victims which aside from being downright frustrating and embarrassing was unprofessional and tended to encourage the have-a-go-hero types. A small voice in the back of her brain screamed at her that something was wrong and to get the hell out of there. She looked back at her victims, her very… odd looking victims actually, one of them flickered slightly, her eyes widened.

"Gizmo! Something's- Gizmo?" Jinx said to the void where Gizmo had been only moments before.

"Oh god it's a-" Jinx exclaimed as she span and smacked straight into Kid Flash.

"-trap?" He finished for her with a smile.

"I've got to hand it to you Jinx, you've impressed me." Kid Flash said walking to the middle of the room and turning off the hologram of the guests.

"They weren't real." Jinx said numbly as he hands fell to her sides.

"Oh don't say it like that, this is one of the best holographic projectors about, I had to borrow it from Batman and swear on my life to give it back safe and sound. Anyway, you got that something was amiss before I took Gizmo, you're smart. I expected you to step it up after out last encounter but the heat detectors in the building to catch my super speed instead of cameras? I didn't expect that." Kid Flash said shaking his head with a smile.

"How come they didn't pick you up then?" Jinx asked narrowing her eyes.

"I managed to disable it, only just though. But that's Gizmo's fault not yours. But all the organisation, the identical cars outside to throw me off when you escaped… I didn't even know you were doing that until I got here, very smart." Kid Flash said admiringly. He looked up at Jinx intently, she didn't look happy, it wasn't surprising really considering as he'd just ruined her plan, but he couldn't exactly let her get away with it could he?

"Well it didn't do me a whole lot of good did it? Are you gonna take me to jail or what?" Jinx demanded defiantly folding her arms at him.

"I'd like to get to know you first." Kid Flash smiled charmingly at her.

"Haven't you got a database for that as a Titan?" Jinx asked watching him closely, hoping and praying that he'd say that he wasn't a Titan, just an especially skilled solo hero.

"Nah, that thing just tells me what you've done, it doesn't really tell me anything about who you are." Kid Flash said shaking his head. Jinx's shoulders fell, he was a titan and if he'd read her file then he'd know she was on her third strike and so this was all some sick lead up to… she didn't even want to think about it. She sat down on the steps, it wasn't even worth trying to attack him, not unless he got really close to her, but she doubted he'd make that mistake again after last time. It wasn't worth the risk of making him angry, not with what he knew anyway, why couldn't he just make this quick?

"It did tell me that you steal a lot of luck charms though, why is that?" He asked curiously.

"What's it to you?" Jinx asked defensively, her fists were clenched and shaking. _Just get it over with_ she urged silently.

"Well, it helped me get you here for one, and two someone with your bad luck powers obsessed with good luck charms strikes me as someone unhappy with their powers." Kid Flash pointed out watching her closely, she seemed almost resigned but… tense. It seemed that the more he talked to her the less he understood about her.

"Who'd want my power? Wherever I do bad things happen, to me, to everyone. Why would anyone want to keep that?" Jinx muttered looking away from the Titan, he was staring at her in the same way that a cat watches a mouse and she quite frankly didn't like it.

"Well I can't see the ability to give people really good days and help people find dollars on the street being too useful as a super power." Kid Flash said with a wry grin.

"Just arrest me and get it over with already." Jinx sighed morosely.

"Why are you so keen to go to jail?" Kid Flash asked surprised at her sudden change in mood, she didn't strike him as the type to just give up, she'd not given up last time they met so why now? What was different?

"Because jail is far better than being stuck here with a Titan!" Jinx snapped hatefully. Kid Flash raised an eyebrow, oh, it was that was it? She hadn't known for certain he was a Titan last time but he'd just told her he was moments ago.

"Why do you hate Titans so much?" Kid Flash frowned annoyed.

"Do you even have to ask?" Jinx growled glaring up at him, her eyes glowing slightly.

"Clearly I do have to ask." He responded flatly, wasn't that obvious? And what right did she have to hate him? She didn't know anything about him, she'd not even tried to find anything out about him like he had been for her.

"Haven't you ever heard of the expression 'if you have to ask you'll never know'?" Jinx said pointedly.

"You know, I thought there was something different about you but clearly you're too determined to stay the way you are and hate me for whatever reason. And I don't know why you're so against Titans or why you'd rather go to jail that talk to me but right now I couldn't care less. But I'm perfectly happy to do the taking you to jail part right now." Kid Flash said tersely.

"Go ahead, I'd rather go to jail than risk spending another minute with you." Jinx growled at him.

"Wish granted." Kid Flash shot back as he kicked into super speed and grabbed Jinx as he ran to the police station. Anger burned in his lungs, this wasn't how tonight was supposed to have gone at all, Jinx hated him for no reason and there was no way he was ever going to find out why, he'd never met someone who hated him so much instantly before and he couldn't stand it. Right now all he needed to do was to get her away from him and preferably into custody, maybe when they'd both calmed down he'd go visit her in her cell and get his answers then, assuming she'd talk to him of course.


	4. Chapter 4

"You're WHAT?!" Kid Flash shouted angrily at the police officer.

"Full." The police officer repeated feeling very annoyed with the superhero.

"How can you be full? How is that possible?" He shouted in disbelief. Jinx sat sullenly at his feet in power inhibiting handcuffs, the chain between them jangled slightly as she inspected her nails, the noise momentarily distracted him and he noticed that she didn't seem as relaxed as she had been when they first arrived, he could tell that she was paying far closer attention to the argument between him and the officer than she was showing.

"By us not having any more room." The police officer said flatly.

"We told you we only had five spaces at maximum left yesterday." The other pointed out.

"Yes, but I assumed that you'd have done some work since then and gotten rid of some people!" Kid Flash snapped.

"We told you we had dive spaces and that's all we got." The officer said gruffly.

"Guess you'll just have to let me go." Jinx said in a silky voice as she smiled deviously up at him.

"Over my dead body." He growled back.

"This wouldn't be a problem if there were as many of you said you said! Who on earth thinks it's a good idea to have six people in the HIVE five?!" Kid Flash snapped feeling his anger get the better of him.

"We don't count Billy, if we did we'd be changing our name all the time, duh." Jinx said rolling her eyes.

"Look, can't you just squeeze her in the cells with them?" Kid Flash said closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose in an attempt to control his anger and get his blood pressure back to normal.

"No can do, the regulations are very clear on that." The officer said sternly.

"Please? As a favour?" Kid Flash pleaded feeling desperate.

"Oh get this, first he accuses us of not doing any work and now he wants _us_ to do _him_ a favour!" The first officer said smugly.

"Yeah how about that. Maybe for Robin, but not for you bucko." The second officer agreed spitefully.

"Oh come ON!" Kid Flash shouted hardly believing the obnoxiousness of these two officers.

"Go take a long super speed run off of a short pier." The first officer shot back.

"Well what's your bright idea then, what am I supposed to do with her if you won't take her?" Kid Flash asked rolling his eyes, these officers were just being dumb now, they _had_ to take her off of him, there just wasn't any alternative.

"We just won't take her out of your custody, which means she'll have to stay in your custody until such a time as we take her from you." The first officer grinned smugly.

"What?!" Jinx and Kid Flash cried in unison.

"Please don't do this, you can't make me spend another moment in the company of this blinking idiot." Jinx pleaded with the officer as she jumped up from her position on the floor.

"'fraid I can Jinx." The police officer smirked at her.

"…this is because of that time I made your car catch on fire isn't it?" Jinx asked flatly.

"A little bit yeah." The second officer shrugged with the assumed air of superiority still hanging over him.

"Well look, can't I swap her for one of the less annoying ones? Look, that one's mute, can't I have him?" Kid Flash asked pointing hopefully at Kyd Wykkyd.

"We couldn't possibly do that." The second officer said shaking his head, barely suppressing his amusement at the whole fortuitous situation.

"Oh no, he's all checked in and everything." The first officer agreed.

"Fine." Kid Flash said viciously as he ground his teeth, he reached over to the officer at high speed and took a pair of power inhibiting handcuffs from the officer's beld.

"But I'm taking these." He said shoving the extra pair into his pocket.

"Hey, isn't one pair enough?!" The officer complained as Kid Flash pointedly ignored him and turned Jinx towards the door.

"It was nice knowing you Jinx." Gizmo called sincerely to her.

"No! You can't let this maniac take me! Think of what he could do to me!" Jinx shouted desperately.

"We will be." The officers chorused with matching grins.

"Oh shut up." Kid Flash said dragging Jinx out of the station behind him by the chains on her handcuffs.

"No! I have rights! You can't do this! HELP ME!" Jinx yelled as Kid Flash dragged her kicking and screaming from the building.

__

"Did you really have to scream the whole way here?" Kid Flash grumbled rubbing his ear as he unlocked the apartment Robin had leant him and shouldered his way through the door pulling Jinx after him.

"Did you really have to drag me all the way here?" Jinx shot back.

"No, you could have walked, like a _normal_ human being." Kid Flash pointed out exasperatedly as he pulled Jinx behind him into the kitchen and after looking around decided to undo one of Jinx's wrists and attach the free cuff to the freezer door.

"HAH!" Jinx said triumphantly as she yanked on the cuff and popped the freezer door open.

"I'll… I'll defrost all of your food if you don't let me go!" Jinx threatened as she tried to ignore how lame the threat actually was and just focus on the _idea_ of threatening him.

"Gee. That'd be terrible." Kid Flash said flatly as he walked off to shut the front door.

"And you'll catch your death before that happens so please don't." He added rolling his eyes at her. Jinx glared at the floor and pushed the door shut with her cuffed hand and shivered slightly at the cold air the freezer had let out.

"What are you going to do to me?" Jinx asked quietly in a scared voice that Kid Flash had not heard from her before. He'd heard defiant, he'd heard angry, furious, petulant and apathetic but scared was a new one. A pang of guilt kicked through the haze of anger and frustration that had been driving him that evening since he'd met Jinx again, she was a scared teenage girl who had just been dragged in handcuffs through the city into an apartment with a teenage boy she didn't know and she was now handcuffed to a household appliance, of course she was scared. He sighed, he didn't know what she thought of him but he wasn't like that, and he didn't want her to be scared of him. Of course he hadn't wanted her to hate him but apparently that wasn't a decision he was allowed to make in Jinx's book.

"Well, I guess I'll either leave you there or handcuff you again properly and let you stretch your legs… We could eat, unless you've already eaten… do you eat before robbing somewhere? Never mind, um, I guess you can sleep on the sofa if I can find something to cuff you to, then in the morning we can go down to the police station and see if they hate me a little less and want to take you in." He said as he stared unseeingly at the contents of his fridge, he wanted Jinx to calm down and she was hardly going to do that if he just kept staring at her. He tried to focus his eyes on what was in the fridge that he could eat but he found himself studying Jinx's reflection in the shiny plastic surface of the vegetable drawer.

"That's… it?" Jinx asked wide eyed, Kid Flash cracked and looked over his shoulder at her.

"You _are_ a criminal you know, I'm not running a hotel here. You're staying cuffed." He said frowning at her, what had she been expecting him to say?

"You're not going to… attack me?" Jinx ventured timidly.

"I- what? No! Why on earth would I do that?!" Kid Flash gawped at her. Jinx shrugged and seemed to become smaller, she shrunk into the shoulders and hugged her free arm around herself but her eyes always stayed on him, even if they were just on his feet as they were now.

"You said it yourself, I'm a criminal, you're a titan. You hate me." Jinx said glaring at him with sudden defiance and hate. Kid Flash blinked at her instant change, in the back of his mind he began to consider that maybe her anger and hatred of Titans was powered by fear, fear of him, fear of the Titans, fear of the police.

"Hey, I don't know if you've met some bad cops in your time but I don't attack people when they're in my custody. And no one else will, you've got my word ok?" Kid Flash said stepping carefully closer to her as he would if he was approaching a frightened injured creature. Jinx stepped back from him instinctively, the chain on her handcuffs jangling.

"The word of a Titan, what good is that?" She muttered looking away.

"Besides," He said with a grin as he pretended not to hear her comment, "You're incapacitated and powerless, right now it'd hardly be a fair fight." He smiled teasingly, he hoped that arguing with him a little might snap her out of her frightful angry state.

"Incapacitated huh? I could break your jaw from here you know." She said darkly.

"You'd have to catch me first." He smirked and vanished, reappearing by the fridge.

"Look, I'm starving. So I'm gonna eat, do you want anything?" Kid Flash asked re-opening the fridge and actually paying attention to its contents as his stomach growled loudly and embarrassingly.

"I- yeah, sure." Jinx murmured surprised by the Titan's kindness.

"So… I feel kind of like we got off on the wrong foot and my temper got the best of me a bit. So can I try to get to know you again?" Kid Flash asked looking sideways at Jinx as he pulled his decided ingredients out of the fridge.

"Do you try and get to know all the girls before you take them to prison?" Jinx asked suspiciously as she decided to sit down on the floor rather than stand awkwardly next to the freezer indefinitely.

"Just The interesting ones." He smiled openly at her.

"How do you know I'm interesting if you just admitted you don't know me?" Jinx pointed out.

"Because you're smart, well trained, talented and powerful and yet not only are you on the side of evil rather than good but also with the bunch of low class crooks. That to me is interesting." Kid Flash said as he started frying sausages.

"Maybe those team mates of mine that are such low class criminals are my friends and that's why I'm with them. Ever think of that?" Jinx said defensively, sure the boys were morons but they were _her_ morons.

"Possible I suppose but you treat them like team mates that you just happen to like personally after the fact, rather than friends that you've teamed up with, so I don't think that's it." Kid Flash murmured shooting a sidelong glance at Jinx's pursed lips to confirm that he was indeed right.

"So… I've got a girl who steals good luck amulets even though her power is bad luck, who stays with a team that anyone with long term plans in their career would either make better or abandon…" Kid Flash mused thoughtfully as he stirred the pan.

"What are you trying to get at?" Jinx said coldly.

"Well that's the ting, I'm not sure. I don't know why you're still doing this, you act as if you don't want to be doing that you're doing or don't intend to continue doing this for much longer…" He said trailing off.

"What are you trying to say? That I'm dissatisfied with my choices in life and I'm desperate to switch sides huh? Not everyone is like you, you know." Jinx said haughtily.

"I know that but then I'm not the one who brought up being dissatisfied with your choices." Kid Flash pointed out as he cut up the now cooked sausages.

"You insinuated." Jinx pointed out.

"If you interpreted that then maybe it's on your mind in the first place, not meaning to go all Freudian on you or anything." Kid Flash smiled adding the cut up sausages to some already cooked cold pasta and adding the sauce from a jar at his side.

"I'm not even going to bother replying to that or you'll say I'm in denial, there's no use arguing with anyone who uses Freud, it's a cheap trick." Jinx shot back.

"Mmm, you have a point. But assuming he's right and you weren't happy with it, why not do something about it? You don't seem like the type to ignore a problem and hope it'll go away." Kid Flash asked curiously as he put the saucy pasta in the oven and shut the door with his hip.

"How do you know I wasn't?" Jinx replied with a smug grin on her face, feeling pleased to be the one with the upper hand in the conversation for a change.

"What trying to get out of a life of stealing and being with those idiots by stealing things with those idiots?" He asked raising an eyebrow at her as he leant back on the counter top.

"Not everything is as black and white as you might thing, sometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards." Jinx retorted.

"I'm sure." Kid Flash said rolling his eyes.

"Like you'd know anything about anything." Jinx muttered looking away angrily, why had she even bothered trying to explain anything to this guy, of course he'd never get it. People like him didn't get these things, they didn't get her situation and they didn't get her. Kid Flash looked down at the tense figure of Jinx and guessed that as far as she was concerned the conversation was over, he sighed to himself, at least he'd gotten a little further with her that time than before. He had at least figured out that she had no deep connections to her team and she at least had a concept of right and wrong and something in him told him that she wasn't at all happy with where she was. But with every answer came a new question, why did she feel she had to keep stealing to 'move forward' and why was she so afraid of the Titans and of him? What had happened to her to make her the way she was?

"Well… I'm going to go have a shower now, please don't try and escape whilst I'm gone. I don't particularly feel like chasing you through Jump city wearing just a towel okay?" Kid Flash joked lightly.

"What? And you're just going to leave me here alone? What am I supposed to do if there's some sort of emergency like a fire or a robbery? You'll be responsible if something happens to me!" Jinx said huffily.

"If that happens I'll save you, it's sort of what I do." Kid Flash grinned waggling his eyebrows at her as he disappeared off around the corner.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: dear god, I'm on some kind of updating spree today! Hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Jinx sat alone in the kitchen sulkily handcuffed to the freezer and contemplated this strange Titan. He definitely wasn't like the others, that was for sure. He was actually kind of… nice. A little fiery at times maybe but she'd never liked anyone that was easy to push around. He did seem oddly fascinated by her though, not that he understood her or her situation, but still he was… nice. Definitely not a normal Titan.

Jinx's ears pricked up at the sound of running water, her own muscles kicked up in protest, she ached all over from Kid Flash pulling her to the station and then back to his place, and she'd been awake for too long for her liking, she could use a good shower too. Not that she'd have gotten that in prison either. Not to mention that her shoulder was getting painful from being elevated at such an awkward angle, it was too high if she sat and pulled too low if she stood. She leant back and tried to straighten her shoulder, it gave a painful crack.

Kid Flash stood in the bathroom looking at himself in the mirror at the odd combination of his civilian clothes with dripping wet hair that was now soaking uncomfortably through the back of his mask. It looked exceedingly odd but he'd have to wear the mask around Jinx as long as she was here, it wouldn't do to have her finding out his secret identity after all. He jumped at the painful sounding crack and the pained yelp that came from his kitchen, he quickly made his way to Jinx whose eyes were starting to water at the pain from whatever it was she'd just done, it was then that he noticed the odd angle her shoulder was and realised just where that crack had come from.

"Jesus!" He exclaimed as he fumbled with her handcuffs.

"You should have told me if it was that uncomfortable! Is your shoulder okay?" He asked hurriedly as he reached out to feel her shoulder.

"Why do you care?" Jinx bit back as she winced at the pain caused by kid flash touching her shoulder.

"Why do you have this idea that I'm some horrible person who likes causing pain to people?" Kid Flash frowned as the lock on the handcuffs dropped open.

"You're letting me go?" Jinx blinked in shock at his actions.

"Letting you go? No. Unchaining you, yes." Kid Flash said unhooking the free cuff from the freezer handle. Jinx's arm fell to her side as she looked up into Kid Flash's blue eyes, she really wanted to just believe that he was concerned about her but a lifetime of experience with Titans had taught her otherwise.

"What do you want from me?" Jinx asked suspiciously.

"Want from- GOD! Again with the paranoid accusations!" Kid Flash cried standing up and throwing his arms in the air.

"Look, if it makes you feel better to make me into some monster in your head then fine, but that's not who I am!" Kid Flash snapped feeling insulted and hurt. Jinx rubbed her sore shoulder and looked up at him like a rabbit might look at a fox, if it was possible this made him feel even worse.

"Food's ready." He muttered as the over timer pinged and broke the silence.

Jinx watched Kid Flash warily as she stood up and fleetingly considered whacking him over the head with a nearby baking tray but once again she sincerely doubted that she could get far away enough from him fast enough before he'd find her. Plus she might run into someone with a less sympathetic disposition towards her, that and although she was freed from the freezer she still had one of the power inhibiting cuffs on her wrist and she couldn't use her powers with it on, or at least not without hurting herself and nothing else. No, she was better off hoping that the fool kept his word and handed her over to the police as soon as he was able. She sat down at the table and watched as Kid Flash served up their food. Even without his skin tight suit on Jinx could see his muscles tensed up under his clothes. She realised that it was probably a good idea to stay on his good side and that meant keeping her observations and accusations to herself.

"Here." Kid Flash said a little coldly as he slid her plate over to her and sat down himself.

"I'm sorry okay? I'm not used to titans being so nice and… you know, not trying to hurt me." Jinx murmured apologetically.

"_I'm_ a titan you know, and those other titans that you're talking about are my friends, I owe a lot of them my life." Kid Flash replied still feeling stung by her comments.

"And you said that my choice of friends was incomprehensible." Jinx snorted picking up her fork, Kid Flash gave her a very unfriendly look and so Jinx turned her attention to her food, so much for staying on the hero's good side.

"Hey!" Jinx exclaimed her eyes widening as the food hit her tongue, "this is REALLY good!"

Kid Flash watched in surprise as a bright eyed Jinx who could clearly hardly contain her delight wolfed her food down as fast as possible. He experimentally tried some of his own wondering if he'd somehow managed to stumble upon creating the food of the gods by some freak accident. Nope, it just tasted like normal, and yet Jinx still looked like she was in heaven, he felt suspicious. Was she mocking him?

"It's not that good." He said raising an eyebrow at her." Jinx looked up startled at the sound of his voice. Her eyes were bright and dancing with delight and she had sauce smeared around her mouth, his suspicions melted away instantly and he couldn't help but smile at her, that wasn't the face of someone mocking his efforts.

"I… sorry. I'm just not used to real food, or food cooked by anyone who can really cook." Jinx explained reddening to the colour of the sauce already on her face.

"The boys are hardly master chefs and I can't cook anything without my powers kicking in and everything catching on fire." She mumbled as an explanation.

"It's okay, I just have to cook a lot you know, my powers require a huge amount of calories so I eat a lot and there's only so much that takeout and microwave food and do for you before you either become too sick of it or it makes you broke." Kid Flash explained with a smile.

"So… you learnt to cook." Jinx finished for him.

"Pretty much, I don't know many recipes, I just throw things together and see what works." He shrugged modestly.

"It's nice, you should be proud. I'm not used to it, the places I've lived either didn't have anyone who knew how to cook or else it was places like the HIVE academy which was just all bulk cooked school type food." Jinx said slowing down with the pace of her eating so that she could savour some of the flavour of her food.

Kid Flash looked at her through his eyelashes as he pretended to look at his food at he ate, Jinx wasn't unattractive certainly, unusual looking but he'd never been put off by unusual features, often in fact he found them… intriguing and beautiful in their own alien way. He supposed it was from spending so much time around other super powered teens, some of which _were_ aliens. She _was_ a criminal though, but she seemed… fun. She was fiery and he suspected that was mostly just a defence mechanism for when she was scared or uncomfortable, she had some deep emotional wounds in there somewhere and a part of him, the part that wanted to save everyone in the world and couldn't bare suffering, wanted to heal them for her. But what could he do? He supposed he could just continue doing what he was doing, exploring where she did and didn't hurt by talking and asking questions, maybe eventually she'd tell him something without shouting at him, having said that her shouting usually gave him something to work with. He knew that she hated and distrusted Titans, feared them, she seemed to think that Titans were all out to hurt her or attack her, which was a little strong, surely they just arrested her as he had? But… then why was she so surprised by what for him was fairly routine behaviour, well, okay, he _had_ shown more than normal interest in her. If only she'd tell him something though… how best to get information out of her though?

"Didn't your family cook?" He blurted out. He cringed slightly at this, _smooth, West, smooth._

"Pft. What family?" Jinx snorted dismissively, Kid Flash watched her carefully, that was interesting but it didn't tell him much. He had to investigate further!

"You must have had a family surely? Parents at least?" He tried again.

"Yeah, parents who gave me up the moment they took a look at me, it was obvious I wasn't normal, you might be able to keep your powers a secret but for someone like me that's just not an option. And no one ever wants to adopt a freak, even less so when my powers actually came in." Jinx said distastefully wrinkling her nose.

"I'm sorry." Kid Flash said quietly, he guessed that Jinx must have had a pretty rough start in life, being bounced from place to place feeling isolated like that would surely make anyone feel distrustful of people, but of the Titans?

"Bite me, I don't need your pity hero." Jinx shot back as she irritatedly skewered a piece of pasta.

"Let me guess, you don't need anyone else either. Look Jinx, you don't need to act all tough with me, everyone needs someone, it's just human nature." Kid Flash offered sympathetically.

"You know that phrase 'human nature', it's been used to justify so many things that I bet your moral code would object to." Jinx frowned jabbing her fork at him,

"Your so called human nature? It makes people hate and fear those who are different to them, if you look different or act different then humans and their stupid nature despise you, just pick and history book from any time period and you'll see that." Jinx said bitterly.

"So what? People have hurt you so you're trying to even the score? Bring down the system?" He asked pre-empting her argument, he hated that kind of mentality, all it did was hurt people and he'd heard it way too many times before.

"No, I just want to be left alone." Jinx said quietly, Kid Flash raised an eyebrow, now that was a new one.

"You've got a funny way of going about it. Robbing museums is hardly the kind of low key behaviour that'll make people leave you alone." He pointed out earnestly.

"You wouldn't understand." Jinx said as she glared down angrily at the table.

"So help me understand." He said softly.

"You WOULDN'T! People like you never do! You don't care! You don't understand and you don't want to!" Jinx snarled rising to her feet and knocking the chair behind her over, Kid Flash raised an eyebrow. Bingo. We have a reaction, now… to try and get an answer without having her threaten to kill me.

"If I didn't want to know why would I be asking?" He said reasonably as he stayed where he was sitting, getting up would only make her feel threatened and more antagonised.

"Because I'm some moral curiosity to you, you're a kid with a magnifying glass and I'm some ant that you've found, once you're done studying me you're just going to burn me like everyone else!" Jinx hissed at him as she leaned on her knuckles on the table and loomed over him in a way that a girl three inches shorter than him shouldn't be able to do, even if he was sitting down.

"I would never- hey! You're one to talk about not wanting to know Jinx, but you hate me without knowing anything about me!" He shot back feeling annoyed at the unfairness of this argument, he showed concern and care and she threw it right back at him and used it as evidence to prove how unconcerned and uncaring he was. That wasn't fair, and surely it had to be breaking some kind of rule.

"I know enough." Jinx growled hatefully, her eyes narrowed at him.

"Oh and what gem of knowledge do you have on me that lets you know that I'm so awful?" He demanded finally standing up and glaring right back at her, if Jinx wanted an argument fine, she'd made him mad enough for one now.

"You're a Titan, that's all I need to know." Jinx said matter-of-factly.

"You're just bitter that you got caught, you're angry at my friends because they've caught you before, that's all this is!" Kid Flash snapped feeling the anger flare up in him again despite his best intentions. This girl could just make him so… infuriated and frustrated and… lots of other things ending in 'ated'.

"That's all that matters to you, isn't it? Crime. All you Titans care about is the law, you're allowed to be outside it but no one else is! You stick to the law like it gives you some moral right and you don't understand or care that legality is totally different from morality!" Jinx shouted.

"They are the same, the law is there to protect all of us." Kid Flash declared loudly, surely that was obvious to anyone?

"No they're not! Stealing is always wrong in the law but you'd do it if you had to to survive! Assault is always wrong but you'd do it if you were fighting for your life! But as always those who administer the laws are always above it." Jinx said not even bothering to hide the venom in her voice.

"I don't think I'm above the law!" Kid Flash said defensively.

"Oh, you think so do you? You assault people, you deceive the public by convincing an institution to lie to us for you, you assault me and my friends and you've kidnapped me!" Jinx said counting the list off on her fingers.

"I've not kidnapped you! You're in my protective custody! And I only assaulted your friends to stop a robbery!" He stammered shocked by how she apparently viewed the situation.

"And what gives you the right? You've just declared yourself as an exception to the law because you think you have some right to because you yourself have proclaimed you a hero! It's just stupid circular logic! At least the police have rules and they arrest each other if they break them, who polices you? Who stops a Titan when they break the law, when they go too far? How can you even tell if laws apparently don't apply to you? If I attacked you and locked you up in my base I'd be a criminal and a kidnapper, I'd be a bad guy; but if YOU do it you're a hero!" Jinx said clenching her fists angrily.

"It's… it's not like that." Kid Flash said weakly, Jinx towered above him, her face the very picture of rage, her fists clenched hard and her whole body visibly shaking.

"Like hell it isn't." Jinx snarled slamming a fist into the table. He saw the flash of pink before he heard the electrical sizzle. Jinx jerked backwards as another wave of pink coursed through her body and the angry hum of the electricity grew louder.

"Jinx! What's happening?!" He cried as all anger dissipated only to be instantly replaced by fear, the only response he got from Jinx as she fell to the floor was a scream that reverberated through his bones. Panicking he fumbled around in his trousers for the key to the handcuffs that he'd used only moments ago, he swore as he realised it wasn't there. He desperately checked the surface of the countertop and the floor but he couldn't find the it and Jinx's scream was growing more and more bloodcurdling by the second. The second pair of cuffs! He leapt to his feet, they had a key! He ran full speed to the bathroom, desperately rifling through his discarded uniform on the floor until he came across the key, by the time he'd made it back the electrical sound was much louder and now clearly coming from the handcuffs as he'd suspected. As he quickly inserted the key and pulled the handcuff off of her wrist the shock that emanated from both them and Jinx's own body threw him clean across the kitchen.

"What the hell was that?" He coughed as he crawled across the floor to where Jinx lay shaking slightly.

"Jinx, what happened? Are you okay?" He asked shaking her, her body seemed to tense in his arms and then relax. His eyes widened, she was as limp as a rag doll.

"It'll be okay… somehow." He murmured to her unconscious body as he picked her up carefully.


	6. Chapter 6

A/n: yes, Wally's explanation is mostly inspired from the Teen Titans year one comic book, although I know it doesn't really fit with this incarnation of the Titans I still liked the story. ^_^

Jinx blearily opened her eyes, she felt like she'd been hit in the head with a brick. Her eyes focused and unfocused again, she groaned and squeezed her eyes shut. As she pushed herself up on her hands the bars before her eyes swam into focus shortly followed by the rest of the world.

"Whoa! Easy there!" Kid Flash said reaching through the bars and gently helping her to her feet, the thick soles of her shoes clanged against the metal floor of the cage she was in.

"I feel like I've been hit by a bus." She groaned pressing a palm to her temple in an effort to ease the ache that lay there. She suddenly realised that her hand was free from the wrist of the other, she pulled her hand back and sure enough aside from two new nasty looking black band marks on her wrists there was a barely a trace that she'd ever been wearing the handcuffs, it felt good to be free of them.

Kid Flash reached through he bars and took her wrists in his hands. He ran a bare thumb across the dark line there, Jinx shivvered.

"Does it hurt?" He asked looking down at her with big blue eyes.

"They feel kind of numb." Jinx murmured in response. She squeezed her eyes shut, her mind still felt fuzzy, she couldn't remember being uncuffed, much less being put in the giant cage that she was currently residing in. The last thing she remembered was arguing with Kid Flash about something, what it was wasn't clear yet, but she knew she was right about whatever it was.

"What… happened? I don't remember." Jinx frowned.

"They said you might not." Kid Flash sighed letting go of her wrists and collapsing back into the chair behind him, Jinx wondered how long he'd been sitting there watching over her waiting for her to wake.

"You fell unconscious, they said it was feedback from the handcuffs or something. Your powers had some sort of reaction to the power inhibiting cuffs." He sighed looking weary, Jinx felt vaguely guilty for making him worry.

"You… made me angry." Jinx said distantly as she stared at her hands.

"What does that have to do with it?" Kid Flash asked frowning.

"When I'm angry, scared or in pain my powers flare up, it's a reflex. You made me angry." Jinx explained inspecting her wrists for any hidden damage.

"And so… your powers turned on and the handcuffs shocked you. Which, of course made you feel pain so your powers got louder and so on." Kid Flash nodded realising the truth, it was a vicious escalating cycle, no wonder Jinx had passed out, he wondered briefly how high the voltage got before she passed out and winced at the idea.

"Pretty much. It's never happened before though." Jinx agreed.

"Well we figured it was something to do with the handcuffs, I just figured they were faulty, as did the police department, they took that pair off of me to check it wasn't their fault; lawsuits and that." Kid Flash commented wryly.

"How conscientious of them." Jinx said with a twisted grin, that was just like the police.

"They gave me that instead, said it ought to hold you." Kid Flash said gesturing to the cage Jinx was in.

"Did they now?" Jinx said curling her fingers around the bars and giving them an experimental shake, they seemed sturdy.

"Would it hold you?" Jinx asked curiously.

"No." Kid Flash snorted with a laugh, he looked more comfortable in his chair now. He sat arms folded and slightly slouched and grinning up at her animatedly.

"But surely you need some kind of run up to be able to run fast enough to break the bars, they're pretty strong." Jinx blinked surprised. She tilted her head at him, the boy might be skinny but even he couldn't just slip out through the bars and he didn't look like the type to have super-strength.

"Well yeah, but I can vibrate my way though solid objects and that needs no run up at all." Kid Flash grinned proudly at her.

"Seriously? That's pretty impressive." Jinx said genuinely impressed.

"Good thing you're not trying to keep me imprisoned or I'd have gotten out like that." He grinned snapping his fingers for emphasis.

"I guess you'd have gotten me." Jinx grinned cat-like. She knew that however certain it was that she'd have made that mistake she certainly wouldn't have made it twice and now because he'd told her that she wouldn't even make it once. She wondered briefly what level of containment field it'd take to hold him; this cage was probably charged with a level one. He flicked her fingers behind her back and felt the satisfying heat of her powers respond unabated by the slight field about the cage, she smiled inwardly- it seemed that she wasn't the only one that'd underestimate an opponent. Why on earth would he trust the word of an institution that she'd repeatedly escaped from about what would and would not hold her, much less then tell her outright that it couldn't hold him? She mentally shook her head, this boy gave away far too much.

"So, I bet the cops were pleased to see you again when you returned those cuffs." Jinx smiled changing the subject smoothly.

"Of course, they hated me already, the last thing they wanted was me bursting in there screaming about how their handcuffs had nearly killed you." He said rolling his eyes and remembering the less than pleased expressions of the officers in question.

"You were that worried? I'm touched." She smiled at him, and in truth she was kind of touched by his concern.

"I'm sure we've been over this whole 'I'm not a monster' thing." He muttered clearly taking her statement as sarcastic rather than genuine but teasing.

"I didn't mean it like that, you really aren't like the others… there's something different about you." Jinx smiled at him through the bars.

"I'm not that special really." Kid Flash said bashfully as his complexion reddened, Jinx grinned, there was nothing as spectacularly luminescent as the blush on a redhead.

"So… I guess I'm going to be here another day then?" Jinx asked changing the subject again to save Kid Flash from embarrassing himself further.

"Yeah, the police wouldn't take you unconscious, and besides, I'd have hated for you to wake up locked up somewhere strange where you had no idea where you were." He said gently.

"That's… kind of sweet actually." Jinx laughed slightly.

"Hey, sweet is my middle name." he said mock-seriously.

"Your parents must have had an odd sense of humour if that's true." Jinx chuckled leaning casually against the bars closest to him.

"Hippies." Kid Flash said teasingly.

"You're lucky it's not Starshine then!" Jinx snorted with laughter.

"That'd be an awesome superhero name if you had like, celestial superpowers." Kid Flash mused.

"You know, I still find it really hard to believe you're a Titan, you're so nice and normal." Jinx said with a happy sigh.

"Well, 'normal' for a bunch of super powered teenagers is something of a comparative term I feel but thank you all the same." The redhead laughed.

"But still," he said his face suddenly serious, "I could say the same about you, you're pretty nice and normal for a member of the HIVE five."

"Well, normal maybe but I'm not different to them, we all want the same things." Jinx relied equally as seriously.

"And what's that?" Kid Flash asked quietly as he stepped closer to the bars.

"The usual, safety, security, a home, comfort, food and water, friendship… love." She trailed off tantalisingly, her pink eyes suddenly seeming seductively darker.

"Oh?" he murmured leaning fully against the bars feeling for all the world fully under her spell.

Jinx's brain screamed at her that this was her chance, that she should reach through those flimsy bars with only a level one containment field on them that would never hold her, grab the hero, give him the hex of his life and run. It was screaming at her to break something and leave him locked up so she could spend the last of her ever shrinking window of opportunity before the Titans arrived putting as much distance as possible between her and Jump City.

But Jinx wasn't doing what her brain was telling her to do, she was following the orders of something else entirely. She didn't have to move that much closer to Kid Flash's red flushed face to kiss him.

Their lips brushed gently for a few moments before the kiss deepened, after a few moments Jinx pulled away, her brain screaming at her about the irrationality and danger of what she'd just done.

"We… probably shouldn't have just done that." The speedster murmured through now slightly pink lipstick tinted lips.

"I'm sure the police wouldn't be too thrilled to find out." Jinx agreed quietly as she threaded her fingers through the bars with his.

Kid Flash had tensed at first, thinking that Jinx has intended to blackmail him over what had just occurred, but Jinx's hand in his own and the slight red hue on her otherwise grey skin told him otherwise. He couldn't help but smile.

"I meant it you know." Jinx said snapping him out of his reverie.

"Meant what?" he asked rather tactlessly. Jinx rolled her eyes and he was sure he heard a mutter of 'boys' or something like it from her.

"About us being the same. Look, why did you turn to the Titans? Why did you make that choice?" Jinx prompted.

"Well, I used to work with the Flash, I mostly work alone these days though, personality clashes. " He said by way of explanation.

"Some big bad mind control stuff went down with a lot of our mentors and we grouped up to stop it. After Robin kept the Titans going, expanded it, and I've always been a member because I was there in the beginning, even if I was still with the Flash. I stopped being a sidekick alter and went full time Titan, I've got my own city to watch, it's cool. I like it." He finished hoping that the answer Jinx wanted was in there.

"You watch your own city? As in… by yourself?" Jinx asked looking surprised.

"Yep, all by myself. I'm the veritable one man band of heroism." Kid Flash grinned cheekily.

"I thought Titans always worked in groups, like here and Titan's east." Jinx blinked surprised still.

"Eh, sometimes. I'm not much of a team person, that and I've been told I'm annoying to be around." He said pulling a face. At least Beast Boy was fun and always up for a laugh but he knew it'd drive him crazy working under Robin, plus they were a full team without him, they didn't need a sixth wheel.

"Huh. Interesting." Jinx said probably more to herself than him. She shook her head as if to rid herself of the thought and began to talk again.

"Through a series of bad choices and picking a few fights I couldn't handle I became… indebted to certain people that it's best to avoid being indebted to. I had to help certain people and avoid certain authority figures. This left me with few options. I joined the HIVE academy who by the way employ brain washing techniques and in order to graduate I had to take on certain jobs against certain people that I'd rather have not done." Jinx said somewhat stiffly. Kid Flash raided his mental record of the Titan's file on Jinx until he hit an answer.

"You mean taking on that assignment from Slade to destroy the Titans don't you?" He gasped.

"I was sort of hoping that you didn't know about that." Jinx grimaced sitting down in her cage. Kid Flash hesitated for a second before joining her on the floor, albeit outside of the cage. Jinx shuffled about on the metal floor a bit before leaning stretched out against the back wall of the bars.

"Do you think one mistake should damn a person for life?" Jinx asked watching him carefully, he seemed to think about it for a second before answering her question.

"With a couple of exceptions no, I think everyone deserves another chance." He answered slowly. Jinx smiled at him clearly pleased with his answer, in the back of his brain he was more than a little ashamed of how happy he was that he was saying the things she wanted to hear from him, he seemed to feel a lot more invested in the happiness of this girl, who was despite all his interest in her was a very new addition in his life, than he should be.

"I assume you mean murder, horrible acts of violence, things like that." Jinx nodded.

"Yeah." He agreed feeling suddenly unsure of where this conversation was going.

"And yet you arrest me." Jinx grinned deviously.

"You _were_ committing a crime at the time I seem to recall." Kid Flash replied flatly, he had expected Jinx to laugh or deny that _really _those things that she was doing should be considered a crime but her unusual pale face turned serious.

"Where's my second chance?" Jinx asked in a voice so level that it surprised even her.

"You weren't exactly showing any signs of changing your ways at the time." He pointed out defensively. In fact she'd been downright rude and hostile to him and she'd hit him on the head the time before that, that'd really hurt.

"I told you, sometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards." Jinx enunciated slowly, as if speaking to a child. Kid Flash blinked, she'd had said that phrase before but at the time he'd not given it any thought and brushed it off, now he felt it's real meaning sinking in.

"What… where you robbing the museum for?" he asked slowly.

"For money." Jinx grinned widely, he resisted the urge to roll his eyes, that was hardly a helpful answer.

"Money for what?" he questioned further.

"I was thinking a fast car, a map, fake passports and a Spanish language book." She said airily.

"You… were trying to raise the money to escape… to start over." He breathed shocked, it felt like his whole world just rumbled ominously like the ground before an earthquake.

"And now he gets it, and here I thought you were fast." She chuckled clearly amused at his shock.

"Oh god… I didn't know…" He breathed horrified. He should have just let her go, museums had insurance for these things and it would have allowed six criminals to go straight and start over. And instead he'd gone blundering right in and just arrested them and thrown them straight back into the system again, he started to feel slightly sick.

"Would you seriously have believed me if I had told you in the museum, claiming that I was trying to change?" she pointed not noticing how pale the speedster had suddenly gone.

"No, I mean if I did that I'd never arrest anyone." He murmured as his whole body filled with a feeling of dread, he could feel himself being pulled along a path that he really didn't want to go down.

"So, you going to let me out or what?" Jinx asked with a hopeful grin.

"I… I can't." He replied staring down at his hands as they clutched at his ankles.

"What do you mean you can't?" Jinx frowned with a dangerous look in her eyes.

"If I let you go they'll arrest me." He mumbled.

"So say I overpowered you or something and escaped." Jinx said leaning forward.

"I can't do that either, you're in my legal custody, they can still arrest me even if I said you'd escaped." He replied quietly.

"So you say that you believe that people deserve a second chance but you won't give one if someone asks you at the time and you won't give me one now because you're too worried about your own precious criminal record." Jinx growled angrily.

"It's not- that's not what I mean!" Kid Flash cried desperately, he had to make Jinx see that, he just had to.

"You already break the law, but only when it suits huh?!" she snarled clutching at the bars.

"It's for the greater good, and anyway I'm allowed to!" He insisted urgently although he knew his words were wrong the moment they left his so recently kissed lips.

"Don't delude yourself! You're just interested in your own self aggrandising aims! Your actions speak loud and clear, you won't risk your reputation to save my life!" She hissed hatefully.

"Your life isn't on the line! That not the point anyway Jinx, I'm not like that, you know I'm not!" He pleaded with her.

"Bite me hero." Jinx shot back as she turned away from him, her muscles stiff and tense. Kid Flash felt his heart ache, this was all going wrong, far too wrong.

"Jinx… Jinx don't do this to me." He pleaded, he really didn't want her to start hating him again, they seemed to have come so far, and she'd kissed him too. That had to mean something right? But Jinx simply stood in her cage with her back to him and her shoulders drawn up defensively around her.

"I'll just… leave you alone for a while… give you some space." He sighed half-heartedly as he sloped off to his bedroom knowing that the argument was already lost and there was no way he was going to change her mind anytime soon. He leant on the shut door with a sigh, why was she always so difficult?


	7. Chapter 7

Jinx sat sullenly in her cage, Kid Flash had left her alone now for a while, thank goodness. She didn't think she could stand being around him right now. She wished fervently now that she hadn't kissed him and had locked him up instead. But she'd been stupid and naïve, she'd really thought he was different. She thought that the fact that he seemed kind and worked alone meant that he might actually be a good person and that he might do the right thing and let her go.

The right thing, wasn't that what heroes were supposed to do? What they claimed to do? If that was the case then why did they seem to have such a hard time sticking to it or even bothering to try?

She sniffed, she'd hoped that despite everything this might turn out okay. She'd hoped that she'd get her second chance, hoped that she's be able to get free of this life, she'd even entertained ideas of him seeing her in her new life, imagining him breezing down to see her somewhere hot and grinning at her like _that_ as she stood in a loose billowy dress on a hot beach and she wouldn't run from him because she didn't need to worry about him being a Titan because he wasn't like the others.

She squeezed her eyes shut tight. Why had she kissed him?! Now this whole ordeal would just hurt so much more. But he'd just seemed so nice and sweet and reliable, he seemed gentle and despite what her history should have told her about people like that not existing she just really needed someone like that to be there for her. A heavy sad feeling sunk deep in the pit of her stomach and her eyes filled with water, why did this always happen to her? At least he'd take her to the police station tomorrow, then she'd be in prison for a long time, and to be fair she was probably safer there. All her dreams of freedom and escape to somewhere nice and warm near the equator faded.

Kid Flash leaned against the wall of his room and watched Jinx morosely through the gap between his slightly ajar door and its frame. She seemed so… dejected and hopeless, she looked just like she had when he finally caught her in the museum, it was as if she just wanted the whole thing over with, as if her soul couldn't cope with any more of what she was enduring now.

He sighed and flopped back down on his bed, he probably shouldn't be spying on her anyway. Why had she kissed him? The more cynical part of him supposed that she was trying to sweeten him up so he'd let her go. But that didn't seem right. His fingers brushed his lips and a happy shudder ran down his spine, she'd seemed so overcome with affection at the time, the way her own face had reddened and her eyes had sparkled, there was no way she was being disingenuous.

He sighed deeply again and stared at the ceiling, he wished so badly that he could heal her scars and soothe her pain, he wished that he could just let her go but the last thing he wanted was to be arrested himself or kicked out of the Titans, and besides prison wasn't so bad. She'd broken out before, so if she really needed to she could break out, and if he just so happened to be otherwise engaged when that happened then they could hardly blame him for that could they? He smiled, things would be alright after all, Jinx would see. His communicator went off suddenly and the loud noise and the buzzing against his leg made him jump and cry out.

"Yes?" He asked with a sigh as he flipped it open, Robin's glowering face appeared before him.

"Have you actually done any work since you've been there you slacker? Or are you just eating our food and making the place untidy?" Robin started with a hostile tone.

"Hello to you too." Kid Flash said rolling his eyes at the other teen.

"Well?" Robin pressed clearly unburdened by social niceties.

"Yes I've been working, arrested loads of people, the holding cells in the station are totally full." He said dismissively.

"So you're what, deliberately choosing not to do the paperwork on the system then?" Robin shot back.

"I was going to, I just hadn't gotten around to it yet." Kid Flash groaned frustratedly, Robin could be such a pencil pusher sometimes.

"Fastest boy on earth doesn't have time to do paperwork? Get on with it." Robin said hanging up.

"Bye robin, nice speaking to you, why yes than you for asking how my day was, I missed you too." Kid Flash said sarcastically to the dial tone now coming from his communicator. He sighed and stood up from his bed and pushed the door open to the living room. Jinx's slightly red face snapped around to look at him, he held his hands up in a silent gesture of surrender and sat down in front of his computer.

"What are you doing?" Jinx asked quietly as he turned the computer on.

"Oh nothing really, just got an earful about not updating the Titan's record so I'm doing it now." He sighed.

"Records?" Jinx asked inquisitively as she turned in her cage to look at him.

"Yeah, just stuff that I've been doing, patrol routes, who I've arrested, status of things. Boring paper work, stuff like that." He said as the computer finally showed his desktop, he clicked quickly on the Titan's database.

"You ok?" He asked looking at a pale and still somewhat shaken looking Jinx on her cage floor.

"I'll live, providing you still plan on putting me in jail of course." Jinx said looking away,

"I'm sorry about that you know, if things had been different…" The words hung on his tongue tasting bitter. If only things had been the other way around… but they weren't and there was nothing he could do about it. He turned back to the screen and entered his password. He typed in the names of the petty lawbreakers he'd arrested and filled up the holding cells with. He frowned that had been the start of this whole mess.

"Damnit, I can't remember the address of the museum." He muttered scratching his head.

"146 Clackton street… why?" Jinx asked sitting up on her knees to get a better view of the screen.

"Ah yes, that was it. I need to fill in about the robbery you escaped from me at, an address is sort of needed. And I need to fill in another form because you hit me and knocked me out." He said pouting as he entered the details.

"You're not going to put about the next museum incident are you?" Jinx asked warily.

"What and miss out the part about me setting up the perfect trap and catching you?" He said swivelling on his chair and grinning at her cheekily.

"It wasn't that perfect." Jinx said sulkily.

"Hey, it's a compliment. Someone as smart as you wouldn't fall for anything less that flawless." He smiled warmly at her. Jinx felt her skin involuntarily flush at this.

"Still, you can't put that robbery on." Jinx said with a frown.

"Why not? I have to." He said looking at her oddly. Jinx winced inside, this boy was so much about what he had to do and what he shouldn't do that he hardly seemed to think for himself, it was pretty infuriating actually.

"Because… I'm not in police custody yet. You've not properly arrested me yet, I need to be in jail don't I?" Jinx pointed out.

"Nah, we have a 'house arrest' status for that thing. I've already set the rest of your team as in jail, it's just you left." Kid Flash said feeling proud of the Titan's system as he turned to fill in the final details, Jinx shouted just as his fingers brushed the keys of the keyboard.

"What?! No! You can't!" Jinx exclaimed wildly as she threw herself at the bars of her cage.

"Of course I can, why shouldn't I?" Kid Flash frowned at her.

"Because," Jinx said shutting her eyes tight, "something bad will happen if you do."

Kid Flash turned around in his swivel chair to look at her at that.

"Is that some kind of threat?" He asked watching her carefully.

"No, it's a guarantee. And I didn't mean to you anyway." Jinx said shaking her head.

"You mean something bad will happen to you if I do this? Is that what you're saying?" He asked again trying to be clear.

"Yes, so please… don't do it." She pleased earnestly, she winced internally, she hated begging for things but in this case she'd rather this than… well, than the alternative.

"You've not got anything to worry about Jinx." Kid Flash smiled warmly at her, Jinx felt the warm glow of relief wash through her.

"You mean you're not going to do it?" She smiled back excitedly.

"No, I mean this is a secure system Jinx, only Titans can access it. No one else will be able to see this." He said reassuringly as he turned back to his computer.

"No! Don't do it!" Jinx shouted throwing herself desperately against the bars again.

"But I just told you-" Kid Flash began again.

"Look, can you just trust me, you don't want to do that." Jinx insisted.

"You've not given me a single good reason to, so either you start explaining yourself properly or I start typing and believe me, I'm real fast at typing so you'll not have much time." He said standing before her with one hand on his hip.

"I'm… I'm not worried about my lot seeing that, I'm worried that the Titans will." Jinx sighed looking down at the floor of her cage in defeat.

"What?" Kid Flash said incredulously.

"Either I've really misjudged you or…" Jinx frowned looking up at him. She looked at his honest blue eyes and his questioning face, she shook her head, there was no way he was involved in this.

"No, you've got a good soul. I don't think you really know the Titans. You're better than them, than what they do… you're better than all of this." Jinx said honestly.

"You're not making any sense, of course I know the Titans." Kid Flash frowned confused.

"Look, with the Titans… with Robin," Jinx said almost spitting the word, "you only get two chances, when you hit your third strike… he doesn't take you to jail." She said shakily.

"I don't… what do you mean?" Kid Flash asked uncertainly.

"If he catches you a third time… he kills you. He makes it look like an accident of course, like you fell off a rooftop on a chase or he lost you and you ran into someone bad. He kills people." Jinx said seriously.

"Of all the horrible lies! I- I can't believe you'd sink so low! His parents were murdered, he abhors killers! You'd know that if you'd ever met him, he's a good, decent hero!" Kid Flash snapped furiously at her.

"Maybe that's a part of it, you can't watch your parents deaths like that and come out whole. He kills people, it's why I had to raise the money to escape now, so I could leave with my life! If you don't believe me check out the records, look up Angel and Plasmus and that electric guy, look at Control Freak! They're all dead and all on their third strike. Mumbo's in hiding in his hat because he's on his second! Just look!" Jinx shouted desperately.

"Enough! Just shut up!" Kid Flash shouted at her.

"If you're so sure he's such a saint then why don't you look? Why don't you check?" Jinx shot back at him.

"This is ridiculous, I'm not going to listen to any more of your lies. I'm going to call him right now to tell him I have you here, he can come take you to jail himself if he likes because that's all he'd ever do. Every word you say is a lie!" He fumed turning away from her.

"What? You're joking right? Tell me you're joking!" Jinx gasped in horror. Kid Flash picked up the phone and dialled inhumanly fast.

"You're… not joking. Oh god. Look, listen to me, just hang up. You don't want to get mixed up in all of this." Jinx pleaded desperately.

"Hey Robin, I was doing the paperwork and I figured this deserved a phone call-" he began as Robin picked up on the other end, Jinx felt all the blood drain out of her face. He was doing it, he was really doing it.

"I saw you busted the HIVE five, what about Jinx, did she get away from you gain?" Robin asked, a note of disapproval evident in his voice.

"Actually, that's what I was calling about, there wasn't enough room in the jail so I've got her here under house arrest." He informed him.

"I trust you read her file and have her in a cage with a level four containment field on it, not some knockoff the cops gave you, yes?" Robin said pointedly.

"Yees… of course." He said trying to keep the uncertainty out of his voice, he restrained himself from looking around at Jinx, he didn't want her catching onto the fact that she wasn't in that kind of cage and could possibly escape.

"I'll be there in a few hours, I'll get her in jail myself, the cops will help me. It's dangerous for her to stay with you." Robin said matter-of-factly.

"You don't need to-" Kid Flash began but Robin had already hung up. He listened to the all too familiar dial tone and turned around triumphantly.

"See? He said absolutely nothing about-" Kid Flash began proudly, he opened his eyes to see the back half of Jinx's cage popped open and leaning against the sofa and no Jinx in her cage at all. "uh oh. This can't be good." He murmured looking around. Surely she couldn't have gone far, he hadn't heard the door open and he'd have seen it if she'd moved by him, she had to still be in the apartment.

"Jinx?" He called walking carefully through the rooms, he turned left at the corridor and pushed the door to his room slightly, he peeked in and couldn't see her.

Two things then happened simultaneously, one a small voice in his brain pointed out that he had his back to the open door of the bathroom and two he was suddenly hit in the middle of the back by a painful crackling force that knocked him straight over. As the light faded from his vision he felt a jerk on his wrist and something tightening around it and Jinx's voice.

"I'm sorry… but I'm not going to die for you…"

His world turned completely black.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: sorry this chapter's a little short but the next one's pretty long and intense and I had to cut the two apart somewhere. Anyway, my final year exams are all done so there will be loads more updates in the next few days, enjoy!

Kid Flash groaned, his head really hurt, it felt like a marching band was stomping about in his brain. Experimentally he cracked open one eye, light flooded in and pain flared up angrily in his brain. He reached his arm forward to rub his temples soothingly, with an uncomfortable loud metal clang by his ear his arm jerked to a halt.

His eyes snapped open and whilst ignoring the throbbing pain behind his eyeballs his turned his head left to look at his hand. It was hovering around next to his face, his eyes slid down to his wrist. There was a big metal band around his gloved hand with a with a red band running through the middle, they looked suspiciously like the second pair of power inhibiting handcuffs that he still hand in the house. In fact they looked an awful lot like them, and they seemed to be on too.

"Crap." He muttered unhappily. His other wrist was chained up behind his head too and if he remembered his kitchen correctly he was chained up to his freezer, the same place he'd chained Jinx too, how ironic. He took a deep breath, Jinx still had her powers when she had these on right? Then surely he would too? He paused, they'd reacted badly with her though hadn't they? And if he could use his powers like she could then maybe they'd react badly to him too, and he knew that if Jinx hadn't had him there then that vicious cycle of powers and shocks would have killed her, and there was no one here with him if that happened.

He bit his lip, could he take that risk? Maybe he could just shout for help, he could feel that his mask was on still but what if whoever heard him calling decided to look under his mask and take his picture? What if they sold that information to the highest bidder? His whole family and everyone he knew would be in danger.

Well, that settled that then, no calling for help, but the fact remained, he had to get free. It looked like he'd have to take a chance on using his powers then.

He breathed a few quick breaths in and out and focused his mind on his wrists, he focused on how the cuffs bound him, how they pulled him back against the freezer, he felt where in his wrists he was going to have to vibrate to get him out of them. He felt his heart rate jump up drastically and with a low him he started to vibrate.

BZZZT!

"ACK!" He exclaimed as the cuffs sent a disciplinary shock through his body. He winced, that had stung. But he knew it would happen, he was just glad that he wasn't stuck in an infinite and agonizing power loop. He shook his head, he was going to have to try and work through it, ignore the pain and vibrate through the cuffs.

He took another deep breath, he could do this, he knew he could, his heart rate kicked up and he began to hum again. The shock was stronger this time and the muscle spasm made his back and neck arch suddenly and he rather uncomfortably cracked the crown of his head on the handle of the refrigerator.

"Ow." He muttered feeling foolish. His powers, unlike Jinx's, relied on his muscles. He should have guessed that the electricity would stop him, it overwrote signals from the brain to the muscles causing spasms and contractions, that was why people who were electrocuted often couldn't drop of let go of the thing shocking them. Of course that would defeat him, he couldn't vibrate his way through the cuffs if he couldn't control his muscles. His throbbing head hung low, his hair in his eyes.

"I'm so screwed." He grumbled to himself.

Jump, Jinx had decided, sucked. In fact it more than just sucked, it blew, big time. These were her thoughts as she used her pocket mirror to look around the corner of the alley down the road. When did the damn city put up so many security cameras? She knew that the first thing that Robin would do when he came looking for her, and it was definitely a when not an if, was check the security cameras of Jump for her and seeing as she wasn't exactly the blend into the crowd typed this presented a problem for her.

On the other hand she had to weigh up the amount of time it would take her to get out of the city unseen versus how quickly Kid Flash could escape and find her by speeding about. She had assumed that the handcuffs would hold him but it was entirely possible that they wouldn't, and after all to assume makes an ass out of you and me as the saying goes. After all, she could get out of regular handcuffs without her powers just by lock picking them, he might be able to too. And if he got out whilst she was still in Jump or anywhere near it she was screwed, he could run down every road and alley until he found her, a brute force attack, just like Billy could do. Robin on the other hand would keep an eye on the cameras, try and get in her head, he'd try and figure out what she knew and working out her method from there. He'd know she'd be slowed by trying to avoid cameras, he'd know that she'd be limited in funds and means by trying to avoid the cops and things that would draw their attention to her. And, just like a shark closing in on it's prey he'd hunt her and catch her, or try at least. Her plan included avoiding that last part.

She leaned against the slightly sticky dumpster behind her and considered her options. The fastest way to get out of here would be to run out of the alley, hijack a car, ditch it five miles out of the city, repeat the process then sneak aboard public transport, bus or train hop until her destination was sufficiently random (but still not Jump) and keep running until the chase died down and she could flee towards the equator with her new life. That plan was… risky though to say the least. The chances of something going badly wrong were high and as always she didn't feel too lucky.

She shook her head, that was a bad plan. Maybe she could climb into someone's boot and let them drive her away. But how would she get near the boot of someone's car where there were no cameras? Underground parking lots ensured that no car was left blind and the Titans had made sure that all the roads were covered at all times for these reasons.

She growled frustratedly and banged her head backwards against the dumpster in anger. All she knew is she needed to get the hell out of dodge, or rather Jump. Hah. She could be quite witty when she wanted to be, either that or the adrenaline had scrambled the humour centre of her brain. One of the other.

Kid Flash was not particularly happy, he'd been tied up for almost six hours now and every muscle he could name was cramped up, and a good deal he couldn't name were too. The door clicked open and he tensed, he'd thought Jinx had shut and locked the door behind her, certainly he knew she'd shut the door, something he had been grateful for, the last thing he wanted was some hapless passer by walking in and finding him tied up. But maybe that wasn't the case.

He stayed silent and craned his neck trying to see who was there. A wave of relief washed through him at the sight of the traffic light coloured uniform.

"Robin!" He gasped in relief. Batman's young apprentice swung around and fixed him with a look that was unreadable without his mask off.

"Thank God you're here, let me out." Kid Flash sighed happily.

"What on earth happened?" Robin asked leaning down and using the same lock picks that he'd used on the young hero's front door on his cuffs.

"Jinx escaped, knocked me out and tied me up. My powers couldn't work with those on." Kid Flash groaned rubbing his sore wrists.

"How did she escape? You said you had her secured." Robin asked clearly not pleased as he tugged Kid Flash roughly to his feet.

"Ow. I guess she wasn't as secure as she should have been, I shouldn't have taken that cage from the police." He groaned as he rolled his sore stiff shoulders.

"I told you to use a proper cage! You should have read her file before even _attempting _to contain her! How hard could that possibly have been?!" Robin shouted angrily.

"I didn't-" Kid Flash started.

"Forget it. She's long gone now, I'll go catch her." Robin muttered turning his back on the high speed hero.

"No! I can do it please let me do it! I can trap her! I know her, and she trusts me, I can get her back." Kid Flash insisted feeling desperate to save face to Robin, the boy paused for a moment.

"What are you gonna do?" Robin asked turning back to him and shoving his hands in his pockets.

"I'll have to rob a museum or something with luck significance to get her attention." Kid Flash said running a hand through his hair, he didn't want to commit a crime but if he was only borrowing something as bait to catch a bad buy then he guessed it was okay. It still didn't feel good though.

"So you did at least glance at her file, congratulations." Robin said dryly.

"Look, she trusts me, really, I can get her to come quietly." Kid Flash insisted.

"You're staying here, we'll talk about this when I get back." Robin said shaking his head at the speedster.

"I can do it! I can get her back honest! Just give me a chance." Kid Flash pleaded reaching out to Robin.

"I think you've done enough don't you?" Robin shot coldly over his shoulder as he stormed out of the apartment. Kid Flash was sure he also heard a mutter of 'incompetent' as the door slammed behind him.

"I'm not incompetent." He mumbled to the empty room as unshed tears prickled his eyes. He bit his lip, he had to get Jinx back before Robin could catch her, he had to prove he wasn't totally hopeless. He supposed he could run every street in the city but that would tire him out too much and there was no guarantee that she's still be on the streets, no he had to be smart. He paced back and forth in his apartment, whatever he was going to do he had to do it fast and get to her before he could.

Jinx sat on a rooftop behind a chimney and looked down at the street, she just needed a car to stop and open it's boot or for an open topped lorry to drive by below her, it'd taken her ages to find a blind spot in such a high traffic area but typically as soon as she'd found it everything useful to her had stopped driving below her, it was just a waiting game now. Her ears picked up at the sound of footsteps on the street below her, she looked around and saw Kid Flash on the street below her looking distressed.

"I'll have to rob a museum or something with luck significance to get her attention." He sighed as his words floated up to her, he groaned to himself and ran a stressed hand through his hair. Jinx grinned catlike, he was worried, and talking to himself to boot. He was still trying to re-capture her too, it was kind of sweet. If he was here there was no point hiding any more, he'd pretty much caught him, so she may as well surprise him or give him another shot at letting her go, after all, he was hardly the kind of person you could outrun and if worst came to worse she could just hex him and run off again. She leapt off of the edge of the building and landed gracefully on the ground next to him, she straightened up with one hand on her hip.

"Aw, I didn't know you cared." She grinned at him.

"Look, she trusts me, really, I can get her to come quietly." He insisted to an unseen person in front of him. Jinx's eyes widened and she stepped backwards in shock. Now that she was closer she could see he was slightly see through and flickering, he was a hologram!

"Well at least he was right about one thing, you do trust him." An ominous voice said from behind her. Jinx gasped and spin on her heel to come face to face with Robin.


	9. Chapter 9

"Well at least he was right about one thing, you do trust him." An ominous voice said from behind her. Jinx gasped and spun on her heel to come face to face with Robin.

"No! Please-" Jinx pleaded before the fist connected with the side of her face. She flew sideways and skidded across the floor, out of the corner of her eye Kid Flash's heartbroken face that seemed now to be looking at her for real flickered and disappeared.

Her survival instinct screamed at her and she pushed herself off of the floor with her hands and instantly broke into a sprint away from the leader of the Titans.

"You know Jinx," Robin drawled lazily as he followed her up the road, "you're a smart girl, you should have just quit while you were ahead."

"I was trying to!" Jinx shouted over her shoulder. Suddenly she felt a weight hit her in the back, cords swung themselves around her torso binding her arms to her side. The ropes swung around her a few more times before the weighted balls at the ends smacked her in the arms in a way that Jinx was sure would bruise.

She stumbled and spun around, she'd been too distracted shouting back at him to hear the trap flying through the air, she struggled against it, her breath hitching in her chest as she squirmed uselessly against her bonds.

"It is after all a dangerous life you've embarked upon, who knows what might happen to you." He said his voice like horrible syrup in her ears. Rage flared up insider of her, what made him think that he had the right to do this to her? To attack her in the street with no provocation and threaten her life? How dare he?!

She exhaled quickly and then with a mighty roar she let her powers loose and flung her arms forward sending burnt bits of rope flying out in every direction. With one quick blast she hexed the startled Titan to the floor and ran off in the other direction, this was not the time for witty one liners.

She fled down the alley to her right, her blood pounding deafeningly in her ears, a fence with barbed wires at the top blocked her path. Breathlessly she launched herself off of a garbage can and over the fence, just before her legs cleared it she felt fingers claw at her ankle by she was out of reach by now. Jinx landed on the floor awkwardly and felt her ankle protest at the sudden impact. She broke back into a run and flung a hex out from behind her which, from the sound of it, caused the barbed wire to spring free severely hampering the ascent of the Titan behind her.

Jinx's feet pounded out the route ahead of her, left, right, over that wall, around the corner, right exit, over that garden fence and… dead end. Jinx twirled around, Robin was closing in on her and here was no way out, she was just at the edge of the housing area and entering the warehouse district. She looked back at the wall before her, it was certain death the way she'd come, the walls around her were too high to jump and too smooth to climb, she refocused on the wall in front and took a breath, after all she'd always been in the school of thought that says 'if you can't find a door, make your own'.

She lifted her arms up before her and ran at the wall shooting the hex before her, the wall exploded violently outwards in a flurry of bricks and mortar, she stumbled over remnants of breeze blocks and kept running through the darkened warehouse she found herself in now.

"Stop!" Robin screamed after her like the voices of hell chasing her, her muscles kicked into high gear and propelled her forward away from him at speeds she'd never experienced before. Her muscles recognised the danger in that voice in the same way an antelope does in the roar of a lion, she was pretty and she was going to run faster than she ever had before to get away.

She exploded another wall and burst into the warehouse proper, floodlights from the ceiling alternately illuminated bright patches of the floor and left others in almost total darkness. She sprinted through the maze of crates and leapt over obstacles in her path plunging alternately into dark and light with the base beat of her heart beating rapidly in her head, the sensation was almost like being in a night club, flashing lights and overwhelming noise. Except instead of having fun she was fleeing for her very life and the ominous beat was her own terrified heart and the clang of her pursuers steel boots on the floor and obstacles behind her. She daren't look back but she was sure that she was running slightly faster than him, at this rate she might actually loose him soon if she managed to take enough quick turns in this warehouse.

The noise of the grappling gun firing reached her just before the blinding pain ripped through her left arm. She howled as the metal ripped through her flesh, ripping muscle and shattering bone before exploding messily out of the other side where the four blood-soaked red and yellow prongs of the hook snapped out and dug into what little undamaged part of her arm remained. The sudden cloud of spattered blood hit her skin as her momentum skidded her forward through it.

She choked on the pain and the tang of blood in her mouth, the instinctual tears were already spilling over her eyelids, the pain from her arm was unbearable. She turned her head to see him advancing on her slowly, he walked out of a patch of light and into the shadow and all she could see of him was the light shining off of his teeth as he grinned at her. The only sound other than her ragged breathing and her blood pounding was the whirring sound as the grappling gun automatically ate up the slack cord as he got closer to her.

"I gave you a chance, I give all of you scum chances, even though it's people lie you that ruin this world, kill people, destroy families and break people's lives. God only knows I try." He said with a sigh, Jinx's legs buckled from pain and she fell to her knees clutching her mangled bleeding arm, the pain made her want to throw up. She fought back bile as Robin spoke again.

"But you people… people like you, people like the ones who killed my parents, you just don't change. You can't, you're _incapable_ of it. I put you away and you come out stronger, with new allies and all at our cost." He said angrily.

"Please… don't." Jinx rasped as blood started to pool on the floor as it ran in rivulets off of her fingers.

"This cycle just goes on and on and people get _hurt_, can you even understand that?" He said not even hearing her.

"Please! You can't do this!" Jinx yelled desperately staring up at him, his face was blank behind his mask, if she could have seen his eyes she would have bet they looked hollow, of course they would, there was no soul there.

"You all sound the same. But so do all your victims… the people you hurt, the people you kill." He said coldly.

"I've never!" She screamed uselessly.

"But you will! You all do eventually! You're all the same! Now we can do this quickly and painlessly, or we can do this the hard way." He said jerking back on the grappling gun and wrenching the grapping hook through her flesh backwards a little. Jinx let out a feral scream and a hex shot down the cable snapping it and shocking the Titan.

She scrambled unsteadily to her feet clutching her twisted arm with the hook still embedded in it and ran. She burst through a wall with a hex and another and another until her palm smacked uselessly in front of her against the next wall. Her head felt light and her body exhausted, her muscles quivered. She glanced back to see Robin rounding the corner towards her. Her body flared to life again and she stomped a hex into the floor with her foot, it hurtled along and took out the chunk of floor that the boy wonder happened to be running on.

She turned her eyes back to the wall and forced herself to focus on it and ignore the spots swimming before her eyes, she tried desperately to muster her strength and let a hex jump from her palm with a scream. An alleyway was finally visible beyond the rubble, instead of running out into it however Jinx stepped sideways wearily and tucked herself behind a crate and held her breath, barely daring to let her heart beat as the cursing hero pulled himself up out of the crack in the floor and ran past her hiding place and out into the alleyway. Jinx waited for just a minute before getting up and exiting into a different alleyway via a side door crammed behind some crates that she'd spotted too late when she ran by it the first time. She stumbled out of the door and scanned the contents of the alley. It wasn't actually an alley upon closer inspection but the back of some storage units that looked like garages. Feeling light headed from the blood loss she stumbled forwards along the narrow street until she came to one that was not only unlocked but open, barely thinking she stumbled in and dropped to the floor behind a crate.

Up in the sky unbeknownst to Jinx a hero hovered in the air.

"Two blocks to your left Kid." She said pressing the button on her Titan's communicator.

"Thanks Bee." Kid Flash said looking up in the air and waving at the Titan.

"No problem, anything to keep our spiky haired friend in his place." She grinned down at him.

"I knew I could count on you." He smiled turning off the communicator and zipping over to the open entrance.

Inside Jinx was catching her breath and poking at her new wound, her arm was numb but there was still blood pumping in her fingers so the grappling hook was probably pressing against a nerve rather than cutting off circulation, and miraculously despite breaking the bone it didn't appear to have severed any major arteries and the blood had stopped flowing quite so freely with some pressure. She was debating over whether it would be better to remove it now or to leave it and then go to a professional to get it taken out, it was like when some people got stabbed, they only bled to death after they removed the knife.

She heard quiet footsteps and her eyes fell on the familiar shadow across the wall in front of her, it was pointy with lightning bolts where ears should be. She tensed a glowing hand and peered around the corner.

"Kid Flash? Is that you?" She asked tentatively as she readied the powerful hex in case he wasn't who he said he was, the boy zipped over blowing papers and cloth that had been neatly stacked up around the room and all over her.

"It's you." She said rolling her eyes weakly as the papers slid off of her to the floor. She looked at him to see him glaring angrily at her.

"You!" He began angrily, "You humiliated me! In front of Robin no less, he had to untie me from the freezer!" he snapped poking her in the shoulder accusatorily. He stopped when he heard the pained hiss escape from Jinx's arm, he pulled her tattered sleeve aside as was confronted with the gory sight of her chewed up arm.

"What happened to you?" He breathed shocked.

"Your wonderful leader happened to me." Jinx grimaced as she pulled her arm closer to her.

"What? You-" Kid Flash said shaking his head already, it just wasn't possible, Robin would never do this to her… to anyone.

"God, you're so deep in denial. You can't even bare the thought that your precious leader could be a killer." Jinx growled at him, she tentatively reached her free hand over and wiped some of the blood off of a prong of the grappling hook protruding messily from her arm, the canary yellow and fire red colours shone through accusatorially, it was clearly Robin's hook.

"My god… it… it must have been an accident, I'm sure he didn't mean to Jinx!" Kid Flash stammered his hand frozen between him and her, he wanted to touch her but he didn't want to make the awful looking wound worse.

"You're an idiot. He's trying to _kill_ me!" She shot back at him.

"He wouldn't… are you going to be okay? We should get you to a hospital." He said shaking his head harder and reaching for her arm tentatively.

"I'll be fine, it's not as horrible as it looks. Just… give me a minute." She said pushing his hand away roughly.

"I'm… I'm not going to give you a minute." Kid Flash said standing up and pulling out the containment field generator that he'd swiped from Titan's tower on his way here.

"We can get you some medical attention when I arrest you." He added looking at her arm worriedly.

"Why do you want to be like him? Why do you care what he thinks?" Jinx demanded as she shakily pushed herself up against the crates with her legs only until she was in something close to a standing position.

"I… I owe him. Robin gave me a place on the team when I needed their help, we're heroes, people respect us. They need heroes like us." Kid Flash said in a voice that didn't sound so certain to himself as he shakily pointed the control at her.

"You really wanna be associated with people who can do this to someone?" She demanded tugging her ripped sleeve aside and showing him her arm in all it's gory glory.

"He didn't do that, you're… you're lying!" He shouted desperately, it couldn't be true, Robin wasn't like that!

"Yeah, you got me, I shot myself through my own arm from behind myself with his grappling hook _just_ on the off chance that it might make you doubt your commitment to the Titans. Use your damn brain!" Jinx screamed furiously at him, tears stung her eyes, how could he be so blind?

"Just- just shut up! He's a hero, I'm a hero, he would never!" Kid Flash shouted back fearfully.

"You don't have to be called a Titan to be a hero you know, because believe me, the ones I know are no heroes." Jinx murmured watching him carefully.

"Shut up!" Kid Flash yelled loudly as he pressed the button on the control. The beam shot out from it encasing Jinx in an electrical force field, she let out a yelp and fell awkwardly to the floor on her good arm. He tried to tune out her yells as he turned the dial up, he couldn't have her escaping again, Robin would get here soon and he'd clear this whole mess up, he'd tell him there was a good explanation.

He turned his back on her and spotted Robin nearing the entrance, he gasped and ran up to him.

"Robin! I caught her, just like I said I would." He said gesturing to the fallen girl in the garage.

"You did nothing, I was the one who weakened her. She was hardly going to run far with that in her arm." Robin said coldly as he advanced on Kid Flash.

"Wh-what? You did that to her? Why?!" He demanded horrified.

"I did what I had to to get her, some of us actually deal with villains properly. It's what has to be done, now unlike you I'm going to finish the job." Robin said flippantly as he looked at Jinx shaking to push herself up on her good arm.

"Please…" She coughed helplessly, her eyes full of fear. Kid Flash gasped, Robin wanted to finish the job? Wanted to finish off Jinx?

"No! You can't!" Kid Flash yelped desperately grabbing Robin's shoulder. Before he could even react Robin's arm came around and caught him across the chest, his elbow connecting with his stomach. He fell backwards as Robin turned to look down upon him with contempt.

"I can and I will. And you call yourself a hero, you're pathetic." He sneered.

"And to think, I used to think you were cool." Kid Flash laughed bitterly as he pushed himself back up onto his feet, "It seems you're not who I thought you were."

"Life is full of disappointments, you are one of them. Now hand her over to me." Robin said holding his hand out for the remote.

Kid Flash looked from the control in his hand to the debilitated Jinx and back again, he could see the lightning bolt on his chest if he looked down, that symbol stood for something. He and his uncle… they were heroes, they stood for better things, they had limits and principles. He had to stand for something too, it seemed now was the time to make that stand. His hand vibrated shaking the controller apart until it crumbled in his hand, he looked defiantly up at the shocked Robin and behind him he heard the field fall and Jinx stumble to her feet.

"Catch her yourself." He said darkly. Robin took a step forward his face contorted in anger but Kid Flash was already running at him in hyper speed, in what seemed only like a painful bang Robin stumbled suddenly knee deep in the snow.

"Did I mention I was giving her a head start?" Kid Flash asked casually, his body silhouetted against the setting arctic sun.

"You miserable-!" Robin yelled lunging at him but Kid Flash slammed his foot down at super sonic speeds, breaking the chunk of ice that Robin was on away from the rest of the iceberg, Kid Flash gave it a push with his foot.

"I don't care who you are, no one messes with me. No one gets to claim that attempted murder is heroic." He said as Robin began to drift away.

"You're looking pretty heroic to me. We'll be in touch." Robin shouted shivering against the wind. Kid Flash pulled his communicator from his belt and looked at it thoughtfully before throwing it at Robin.

"No we won't. But feel free to call the others, I wouldn't want you to die out here after all." He shouted back before zipping off.

The street and the row of garages came back into view as he dropped out of super speed, he looked around but Jinx was gone, maybe she still thought Robin was chasing her, or thought that he would.

"Hey, what happened there?" Bumblebee asked dropping to the floor next to him.

"I don't think you'd believe me if I told you." He sighed rubbing his forehead.

"So… where's Robin?" Bumblebee tried again.

"Away, when he gets back… ask him about Plasmus, about Control Freak and about Jinx. Look up their records." Kid Flash said distantly.

"Well… the Titans east and I are going out for a pizza, buy one get one free." Bumblebee offered uncomfortably. Kid Flash looked at her with a weary smile.

"No… I'm okay. You go on." He smiled walking off down the road.

"Yeah… right." Bumblebee murmured to herself before taking flight out of the alleyway.

Kid Flash walked along morosely. It seemed everything he'd known was a lie, he could never be a Titan again and he had no idea how deep Robin's corruption was spread or how many knew and just turned a blind eye. He'd have to do something about that. He hoped at least that Jinx would be okay… he had no idea where she'd run off to. Something bounced off of the back of his head and fell to the floor in front of him. He looked down, it was an old empty Starbucks coffee cup. He turned around to see two soft pink glows in the shadow of a building.

"Starbucks? Please tell me you don't drink this awful stuff." He grinned at her as he tossed the empty cardboard cup in the air and caught it again.

"Give me a break, it was the best I could do on short notice." She shot back as he walked towards her.

"That was a pretty good shot." He smiled down at her.

"I can see in the dark remember?" She pointed out.

"I remember. I can't though, so… maybe you can help me see how things really are?" He asked carefully as his eyes began to adjust, he could see her smirking at him.

"How about we talk about it over coffee then?" She suggested sweetly.

"Coffee and medical treatment I think." He said pointing at her injured arm which seemed to be free of Robin's grappling hook now.

"I've had worse." Jinx shrugged with her one good shoulder.

"I think maybe you should tell me about that too." He said as he followed her off down the alleyway through the dark and out into the well lit street beyond.

"I think I should." She agreed quietly.


End file.
